NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
General Electric posted relatively flat third-quarter earnings Friday on improved revenue, as the diversified conglomerate met Wall Street profit expectations and edged future guidance higher.
The company, whose operations range from consumer applicance to jet engines and from commercial finance to television networks, earned $4 billion, or 38 cents a share, compared with the $4 billion, or 40 cents a share, a year earlier when it had fewer shares outstanding.
Analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call had forecast EPS of 38 cents. The company said it hit that target despite $300 million in after-tax of hurricane-related insurance losses.
The company narrowed the range of its full-year EPS guidance to between $1.57 to $1.60, which is at the high end of its earlier range of between $1.55 and $1.60 . First Call's forecast is for $1.58, up from $1.56 a share it earned in 2003.
"We also remain confident that we will achieve 10 to 15 percent earnings per share growth in 2005," said GE CEO Jeff Immelt in the earnings statement. That would put company 2005 EPS at between $1.73 to $1.84, given its current 2004 guidance. First Call's 2005 forecast is for $1.78.
Third quarter revenue rose 15 percent to $38.3 billion, topping First Call's forecast of $38.1 billion.
The company saw broadbased revenue growth, with only its insurance and energy units posting a decline in revenue. Its NBC Universal, which broadcast the Olympics during the quarter, saw the biggest jump in revenue to $4.1 billion from $1.5 billion a year earlier when it did not include the Universal studios business.
Shares of GE (GE: Research, Estimates), a component of the Dow Jones industrial average, lost 43 cents to $33.95 in trading Thursday.
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